


Bittersweet Times

by Asdrator



Category: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Depression, Family, Fatherhood, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23837110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asdrator/pseuds/Asdrator
Summary: After the fall of Lord Quan in the Yied Massacre and the fall of Lord Sigurd at Belhalla, followed a year later by the conquest of Leonster by the Thracians, Finn finds himself on the run, raising Nanna, daughter of Lachesis, and Leif, son of Quan. Nine years after the deaths of Quan and Sigurd, he realizes he’s regained a sort of happiness, despite everything.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	Bittersweet Times

The fire crackled, and burned, and roared all around Finn. Dying screams and war cries echoed through the air. Great wyverns soared through the night sky. Leonster was falling, and nothing could be done about it, not anymore. Not with Lord Quan dead, his body abandoned in the same desert in which he fell. 

As he rode out of the city on horseback, carrying Lord Leif in his arms and willing himself to ignore the dying and soon-to-be-dying men crying out for his help, Finn supposed he should consider himself lucky that his wounds were light. All that remained was to meet Lachesis in the city outskirts and-

Awaking in a cold sweat, Finn pressed a hand to his forehead and looked around quickly for Leif. He relaxed visibly upon seeing the young prince still sleeping peacefully next to him in the bed. With a smile that was almost (but not quite) tender, he gazed down at his young lord. 

It was hard to imagine that it had been eight years since the fall of Leonster. Leif had grown up so quickly, and were it not for the need to liberate Leonster, Finn thought he might miss the days he spent serving Leif in the prince’s early years. Lachesis had been there, then, and Nanna had been such a tiny thing. However, there could be no going back to those days, Finn decided. Nostalgia was just a distraction from what mattered, especially in these dark times.

Finally, reluctantly, Finn looked away from Leif to look at Nanna. In the other bed of the room, she slept alone. She had slept alone ever since Lachesis had left to find Diarmuid, her son. Who the father of Nanna was didn’t matter, or at the very least Finn felt it shouldn’t, with bastard children having it rough even without the hushed whispers. Nanna’s parentage was known only to himself and to Lachesis, and it was Lachesis’s secret to keep. 

The only secret he kept that was his own was Lachesis’s disappearance after entering the Yied desert on her search for Diarmuid. No matter what he couldn’t bring himself to tell Leif and Nanna, and bring them worry. Finn knew all these secrets would cause him trouble later, but if it would give these two some peace of mind in a dark world, Finn would bring any trouble he had to onto himself.

So long as Lachesis remained missing, Finn would refuse to answer whenever asked whether he or another man was Nanna’s biological father. All that mattered was that Finn was her real father, for he had raised her and protected her and cared for her in the way only a real father can. Though he did not know if he was a good father to Nanna, for his own father had always been busy with work in his youth, Finn could at least say he was doing the best he could.

Slivers of light began to shine through the window of the room, and Finn stretched his arms with a sigh. Another day, another dawn, so the saying went. No matter how comfy the bed was, he had better prepare the food that the kids would have as breakfast, for children needed food to grow strong. More than anything, Lord Leif needed to become strong.  
—————————————————————————  
Having just finished setting the bread and bowls of soup on the table, Finn was alerted to the sound of footsteps. His panic quickly calmed as he looked up and just saw that it was Lord Leif, who had gotten out of bed and walked over, yawning. Finn sighed in relief with a small smile. “Goodness, Lord Leif, you step lightly. I thought for a moment that you were one of our enemies.” 

Finn hated that last word, enemies; he hated the bloody ancestral conflict it had caused to rage for generations between Thracia’s north and south. However, there was no choice but to use it, if there was even the slightest chance that it could make Lord Leif more likely to realize Lord Quan’s dream. If that dream wasn’t realized, then... Finn didn’t want to think about a world like that, even for a moment.

“Good morning, Finn.” Leif mumbled, his voice groggy. The young lord half-stumbled to his usual seat at the table, and placed his chin in his hand.

Finn frowned at this and walked over to Lief, leaning over the boy with a worried look on his face. “Are you feeling unwell, Lord Leif? If you’re ill, you must let me know immediately.” Nanna sometimes joked that if Leif stubbed a toe, Finn would be there with a team of healers in an instant. Finn tried to ignore those jokes, though the truth of them stung a little. She really was as perceptive as her mother.

Leif groaned, both out of exhaustion and exasperation. “I’m fine, I’m fine! I’m just a little tired. You worry too much, Finn.” When Finn’s worried look did not diminish, Leif sighed deeply. “I had a nightmare last night, alright? I saw that burning city, Leonster, again, and heard all the screams, and felt you carry me in your arms. It was really hard to sleep with all that happening.”

Nodding slowly in understanding, Finn ruffled Leif’s hair gently, making the boy giggle. “I had that nightmare too. It was a scary, scary time. I’m only surprised you remember it so well as to dream about it.”

Leif’s face grew serious, or as serious as the face of a ten-year-old could be. “We will take back Leonster, Finn, I’m sure of it. I just have to get a little older, and a little better with my sword. Then I can teach Raydrik and the rest of them not to mess with us ever again.”

The words brought a pleased smile to Finn’s face, but it soon became a sad one. It was excellent that Leif was so determined to follow in Quan’s footsteps, but... it was also sad, in a way, that the prince would never truly get to choose his own path. Even once he became king, for neither of them could not tolerate a world where Leonster continued to be ruled by the tyranny of Friege, Leif would continue to be influenced by his advisors, both for better and for worse. One of the tragedies of kings is they could never truly know whose will they lived to serve.

“Ah, I should go wake Nanna.” Finn noted, as he stood up straight and began to walk towards Nanna’s bed. “Otherwise she might sleep into the afternoon.” If left alone, Nanna slept in the most out of the three of them by far. If what the scholars said about height being connected to sleeping properly was true, then in her height at least, Nanna would become quite the opposite of her mother.

Having reached her bed, Finn shook Nanna softly by the shoulder. “Nanna, it’s time to wake up.” The young girl groaned and turned away from him, trying to pull the covers further over herself. “Ah, you’re already awake. Time to get up, then.” No response. “Come now, Nanna, your breakfast will get cold.” All he heard as a retort was a defiant mumble, if mumbles could be that. Finn rolled his eyes and leaned in to whisper into Nanna’s ear. “If you cooperate with waking up I’ll start teaching you horseback riding.” 

With the speed that Nanna sat up, Finn barely had time to move out of the way of her head. “Really?!” Nanna exclaimed. “Thank you! Thank you so much, dad!” Nanna got out of bed with an amount of enthusiasm that would seem insane to any adult human being were it not coming from a child, and skipped merrily over to her seat at the table.

With a tight smile, Finn took his place at one end of the table, opposite Leif. “Let us eat.” He finally said, prompting the children to begin devouring their bread and soup as though they had never eaten. Children really did have quite an appetite, though Finn supposed that made sense enough. He hadn’t had much of an appetite himself in the nine years since Quan had died, so he never ate more than he had to in order to survive. Perhaps it was a blessing in this situation, where money was hard to come by and he had two growing children with him, but for some reason he couldn’t quite name, it still saddened him that he couldn’t enjoy the taste of a well-cooked meal like he used to.  
—————————————————————————  
“Raise your sword, Lord Leif.”

With breakfast done, Finn had taken Leif outside and began his daily lesson in swordsmanship. While Finn was armed with a wooden practice lance, Leif was armed with a very real, and very sharp sword. The young lord had trained enough to know how not to hurt himself, Finn felt like it was only fair to balance out the gap in skill between them, and the knight wouldn’t be challenged otherwise. The best training, Lord Quan had always said, was one that both parties learned from. Even after Lord Quan’s death, Finn continued to follow his advice, and tried to constantly learn more from what he could remember of the dead prince’s words.

However, after an intense bout, Leif was now struggling to lift his sword, breathing heavily with sweat running down his forehead. “I asked you to raise your sword, Lord Leif. Are you listening? The enemy won’t be nearly so merciful on the battlefield.” There was that word again: enemy. If Quan had been wrong about anything, Finn knew it was that the people of the Manster District and of Thracia were enemies. Deep down, Finn knew there was no such thing as an enemy, that all mankind were as brothers. That was something Finn could never bring himself to admit, not to himself, and certainly not to Lord Leif, but he knew it to be true nonetheless.

Leif grunted and raised his sword as he was told, without complaint. He rarely complained, an admirable trait in an adult but a rare and sad one in a child. Finn raised his practice lance and motioned for Leif to attack. Taking in another breath, Leif did just that, landing a solid blow against the wood of Finn’s lance, and then another. After a brief struggle of steel against wood, the wood began to splinter, and a wide, excited smile appeared on Leif’s face. However, it vanished as quickly as it appeared, as Finn twisted his lance around and knocked Leif onto his back. “You’ve made great progress, but you still have a ways to go.” Finn said with a slight smile as he walked over to Leif to offer a hand up, as the boy prince groaned out of frustration.

“Never fear, Lord Leif. We’re done for the day.” Finn said, his smile unfazed. “Keep at it, and in a few years I might have trouble even holding my own against you.” 

Leif took Finn’s hand and raised himself off the ground. “In a few years, sure, but that doesn’t make me feel much better now.” He muttered, brushing back his messy hair. 

Nanna, who had been watching their match, came over and patted Leif on the back. “There, there. I’m sure father didn’t become strong quickly, you know. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

It was hard not to be grateful for Nanna at times, Finn decided. She was so positive he didn’t know where he and Leif would be without her encouragement. Lachesis’s daughter truly was a vital part of their group.

Nanna turned to him with excitement in her eyes. “So, father. Can you start teaching me to ride now?” Oh, of course. He had mistaken her intentions entirely.

“Tomorrow, sweet Nanna. I’m too tired for teaching right now.” Finn responded, chuckling despite himself. “How about I just take you for a ride today instead?” He said upon seeing her pout. Naturally, her mood quickly returned to excitement.

Lachesis truly did have a strange daughter, and Finn wouldn’t trade her for the world.  
—————————————————————————  
Nanna sat in front of Finn on his horse, cheering the poor horse on as Finn smiled and shook his head, gripping the reins behind Nanna to carefully guide the horse.

Reaching the top of the hill they had been riding up, Finn and Nanna got a gorgeous view of the sunset. As Nanna looked on in wide-eyed amazement, however, Finn gazed not at the setting sun but at the lands its dimming light still lit. Those lands would be Lord Leif’s one day, once Leif was strong enough to take them back. Finn would make sure that happened, no matter what. There could be hope, so long as Lord Leif lived.

However, as Finn looked down at Nanna, still in childlike wonder at the beauties of nature, he realized what he had what he had lost, all those years ago in the Yied. Once again he had people he loved, had learned over again the value of becoming attached to others. For the first time in a long time, he had rediscovered what it felt like to be content.


End file.
